Official blog of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Prof Turley: Fourth Amendment "eviscerated" and other FISA outrages

Well, the fix, errrrr, the vote is in. The U.S. Senate, including PA Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, today voted today to make the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act mere guidelines, rather than law. The FISA Amendments Act allows the government to spy on Americans without ever telling the FISA court who they're spying on or why they're doing it.

Writer Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com and law professor Jonathan Turley have been among the clearest voices on this issue. Here's Turley on last night's Countdown.

National ACLU's Amanda Simon blogged the debate, including this:

Specter followed Leahy and said passing this law without knowing the full details of the program is like buying a pig in a poke.

And then Specter voted for the bill. Ol' Arlen has mastered the technique of arguing against a bill that he plans to vote for.

I did chuckle, though, when I opened my email and had a message from national's listserv with the subject line, "They failed freedom. We're suing." Here's national's press release, announcing the ACLU's intention to go to court over this abomination.